The College and Career Readines and Success Center closed on September 30,2019 because the grant cycle for the U.S. Department of Education Comprehensive Centers ended. The information on this website will no longer be updated. Visit www.air.org for updates on college and career readiness.

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Transition: College to Career

As the economy grows dependent on a skilled workforce, the fact that fewer than 40 percent of Americans have a college degree raises an important question: What is being done to improve the educational attainment of our workforce? This report discusses the importance of postsecondary educational attainment, both for individuals and for companies; presents the results of focus groups and interview research; and concludes with a set of recommendations for employers, employees, higher education leaders, and policymakers.

At a time when rigorous content standards and evaluations of teacher and student performance are on the rise, it is especially pertinent and critical to ensure that teachers and education leaders attend to the foundation for learning and working. Education researchers have identified the components of that foundation as a collection of skills commonly referred to as Lifelong Learning Skills.

This report advocates for the updating of the Federal Work Study (FWS) program. According to the report, those without the funds to support themselves in unpaid work after college graduation are at a serious disadvantage in an economy that increasingly demands both a degree and work experience. The report provides recommendations for updating the FWS program including promoting FWS as a career-ready program through expansion of Job Location Development Programs and creating a Career Internship Program within FWS.

﻿This brief discusses the extent to which a lack of sufficient employment skills leads to structural unemployment throughout the country. In doing so, it also attempts to understand why, in a nation full of countless education resources, this “employment skill gap” persists.

The contents of this Web site were developed under a grant (Grant #S283B1200034) from the U.S. Department of Education. Information presented in this site does not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education, and does not imply endorsement by the Federal Government.